"I was hoping that it would be Cell, but it seems that you will be the first to taste my lead," Austin says as he points his shotgun at Spike. On top of his inmate uniform, Austin notices that Spike has tied what appears to be a bright red blanket around his neck, almost like a cape. "What's that about?" Austin asks himself.
"HAH HAH HAH, you really think that you can best me, Pro Slayer? Your goodie-two-shoes rigid ways of fighting won't even come close to matching up to the ways you learn to fight and the street!" Spike cackles. Punching the groins, biting an ear, a poke to the eyes, anything you need to do to survive!"
"Oh, so the chattering animal finally speaks?" Austin smirks. "I may be a Pro Slayer but don't get me wrong, I have my own ways of fighting dirty." A crazed look glazes over Austin's eyes. "I've come here with full intention to kill!"
In that instant Austin fires his shotgun, completely aware that Spike's flesh spikes will stop the bullet. But Spike doesn't even need to rely on his Cursed Ability. Instead, Spike drops down to all fours and dashes away from the bullet. "Jeez, just how fast is this guy?" Austin asks himself. Spike then dashes up to Austin and attempts to deliver a palm thrust to his spleen, but Austin quickly hops back, dodging the attack. "Gunsmith: Net Launcher!" Austin shouts as the Cursed Power shotgun in his hands morphs into a net launcher. Austin then fires his net off towards Spike, but just like Austin's bullets time and time again, when the net makes contact with Spike's body, flesh spikes shoot out, tearing the net to shreds.
"Dammit it," Austin mutters to himself. "Think, think! From what I've seen, it seems that the flesh spikes can only appear upon contact and a separate object. Judging from when I shot Spike, his spikes only came out a second the bullet made contact with his flesh, so it's safe to say that he can't trigger them without that first criteria. But, it's also safe to say that Spike can't trigger his spikes on his own will period. After seeing how far his spikes extended after making contact with the net and bullets, I was more than close enough to be in their range, so Spike would have to have made full contact with that palm thrust in order to inflict any sort of injury on me. And three, no creature on this planet would have the necessary reaction time needed in order to extend those spikes as soon as my bullets made contact with their flesh, so Spike's spikes most certainly operated remotely. It's safe to say…" Austin begins to ramble.
"...I've completely reduced the nature of his Cursed Ability!"
"Let's see if I can squeeze any last bit of additional information out of him. First, let me confirm my theory about Spike's Cursed Ability. He's a dunce so I should be able to complete this with ease," Austin continues. "Spike!" Austin then calls to the inmate. "Mind telling me the functions of your Cursed Ability?"
"I'm not an idiot! I know I shouldn't tell you how my Cursed Ability works! At least I think so...Rose instructed me not too little before we broke out…" Spike's voice trails off.
A conniving grin spread across Austin's lips. "Loose-lipped fool," he says to himself. ''What was that last part?" Austin asks Spike.
Spike covers his mouth and gasps. "You-you weren't supposed to hear that! Conveniently develop amnesia and forget everything you've just heard!"
"Ah, so it seems my telepathic Cursed Ability theory was correct. Spike couldn't possibly make any sort of communications with Rose during the time frame of when I was watching him, the two were split up. And I know that Rose told Spike that tip recently, as he did say "a little before we broke out." Unless they have some sort of elaborate Cursed Ability, something crazy like making invisible clones to carry information across. I know that can't be Cell's or Spike's abilities, as I've seen both in action, even if Cell's still remains to be a bit of a mystery. So either Rose or Noami is the telepath," Austin mutters to himself.
"Now, to pressure him about his ability. I just asked because your Cursed Ability seems very cool. I know you'll probably kill me but I would like to know how such a complex ability functions? You must be incredibly smart to have come up with it all on your own!" Austin calls to Spike.
"No...flattery won't work on me, I'm not an idiot!" Spike groans, attempting to resist Austin's temptations. "Cell...and the others….they're trusting me to…" he groans again.
"It's a really cool Cursed Ability, afterall." Austin repeats, feigning an innocent smile.
Spike's anguished face curls up into a smile. "Oh, well how can I resist questions from a fan!" Spile giddy replies
"You idiot, do you really think I'm flattering you?" Austin sneers to himself under his breath. "Your Cursed Ability has more weaknesses than stars in the sky! It's completely useless in offense against Cursed Power users with armored or ranged abilities. Its only redeeming factor is that those spikes provide an excellent defense, solely against melee fighters, however. Still, I'm surprised that a moron like me could have come up with the idea of remote operating spikes. A mediocrely talented person you are, Spike Ashford."
You see, since my name is Spike, I wanted an ability that had something to do with spikes! Its name is Pin Needle," Spike explains, sounding very excited to have a chance to explain the functions of his Cursed Ability to someone. "For my Cursed Ability, I can harden my flesh into spikes, though I can't increase my number of skin cells, so I can't stretch the spikes as far as I want or make as many as I want during a given time. As for the activation, there are two requirements. The first one is that my spikes extend automatically as soon as they make contact with any object. Two, I need to channel Cursed Power In the part of my body where I want to extend my spikes from. I can not extend my spikes on will, so making contact with a different object is required. These spikes can extend from any point of my body. Finally, I can't fully control the length of my spikes, but when I concentrate, the already extended spikes can go even further and get larger!"
Austin smirks again "Just as I planned."
"Arghhhhh...nooo!!!" Spike groans again. "I shouldn't have told you that…ooohh ...Pro Slayer kid...you're smart and you figured out my Cursed Ability easily...so I won't let you pass, you'll die here along with the secret of my ability and you won't be able to figure out the Cursed Abilities of the others!"
With a roar Spike charges Austin. Just like before Austin takes a step back. "Gunsmith: Assault Rifle!" Austin fires round after round of bullets at Spike. But as always, Austin's bullets are of no effect against Spike, who's Pin Needle just eats them right up.
Spike shoots his palms forward, right thrust! Left trust! Austin quickly darts his head to the left then to the right to dodge. Austin attempts to sweep at Spike's feet, but to no avail. Upon going for the sweep, mini spikes shoot out and punctured Austin's ankle. This gives Spike the chance he needed to go for a double thrust to Austin's face. Quickly, Austin ducks Spike's attack then uppercuts Spike in the chin, allowing for his hands to get pierced upon impact.
Austin stumbles backwards, clutching his bleeding fist. "Let's try this," he says. "Gunsmith: Taser!" Austin creates a taser gun out of Cursed Power, aiming it at Spike and shooting the taser darts at him. The second that Austin's taser darts make contact with Spike's body, spikes shoot out, puncturing the darts, which send "electricity" coursing through Spike's body.
"Yes! That worked!" Austin cheers. "Though it's not actually electricity. My taser darts are stockpiled with my Cursed Power, which detonates inside my opponent's body when my taser darts make contact with them."
But upon closer inspection, Spike is using his Pin Needle in a ridiculous way to counter Austin's attack. A way so ridiculous that the purely logic-based Austin couldn't have ever dreamed of.
"He...he stuck his spikes into the ground...like iron rods...diffusing my Cursed Power into the ground!?" Austin cries. "Ranged attacks won't work...hand to hand combat certainly doesn't work...not even Cursed Power works! What the hell does work against this guy?! Dammit, I'm getting too flustered to think!"
But with Spike as his opponent, Austin doesn't get a chance to think. Spike crouches down on all fours, and takes off running. He zig-zags toward Austin, so fast that his eyes could barely keep up. In a flash, Spike is on top of Austin, and digs his palms straight into Austin's shoulders, piercing them with spikes. Austin howls in pain and shoves Spike off of him. "Ugh, it hurts but...I can still use them," he grunts."